abstract
| - Zara Mel Bini was born on an unspecified date to a prostitute by the name of Melaza Bini, the ninth child of sixteen. Her father was a customer, a politician unaware of having fathered a child. Zara Mel was found to have a natural bent towards mechanics and petty theft, and she taught herself the basics of engineering from purloined books. At the age of (approximately) eight she disguised herself as a boy, a ruse she would not drop for quite some time. About ten years later, she stowed away on a smugglers ship, begging a job when caught hiding onboard. That was the beginning of many such jobs on 'dirty ships', each one honing her skills while working under the most extreme situations possible. Eventually a time came when she dropped the masculine disguise, attempted to find real work, recontacted her family, and essentially tried to clean up her whole life. Contacted by her mother, Zara Mel returned to Antimone to take a paternity test which her suspected father, Arennas Natosn demanded. The truth of her birth finally came out, and with it the fact that her mother was blackmailing her father. To avoid the scandal and the financial loss, Natosn attempted to have her killed, and was found dead the next day. Disgusted by the blackmailing of her father that had led to this situation, Zara Mel made the mistake of telling off her mother. A short while later, Melaza dispatched someone to kill her. No body was ever found, but a note from Kalvallis, her nearest brother, was sent to Swiftfoot Starchaser that informed her of Zara Mel's death.
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